After returning from spring break, we started reading books from the library for reading group. Our first book was A Big Guy Took My Ball by Mo Willems. This story is from the Elephant and Piggie series. In the book, Piggie tells Elephant (Gerald) that a big guy took the ball that he found. Gerald tells him that he will get the ball back for him. Well, Gerald finds out just how BIG this “big guy ” is. He ends up being a whale and the ball belonged to him. The big guy was sad because no one would play with him. Instead of getting mad, Piggie and Gerald invite the whale to play together.
The kindergartners particiated in activities that went along with the story. They wrote their own questions about the story, drew pictures of their interpretations of the how the characters felt and diferent scenes, along with particitpated in discussions. By the last reading of the book, they were all reading the story along with me!
A Peek Into the Next Two Weeks
-The Kindergartner will be listening to another Elephant and Piggie book.
-The students will be participating in interpretive and evaluative acivites.
Line Time: We are progressing with learning our songs for the International Festival and learning our lines for the show. I have to say the students are doing very very well.
Cultural Subjects:
Your children can now count to ten in 25 languages (English, Latin, Sign Language, Spanish, German, French, Japanese, Greek, Arabic with the Lebanese Dialect, Italian, Russian, Romanian, Swedish, Tagolog, Hebrew, Korean, Hungarian, Irish, Kiswahili, Welsh, Dutch/Flemmish, Polish, Serbo-Croation, Cebuano, and Malay).
Trivia Question: In high school my football jersey was number 86. Why did I chose this number? This is a tough one!
Hint: It is a reference to a 1960’s television show. {you can not google this} bwahahaha
For those of you who are interested I dislocated my right thumb in practice my senior year.
You Ever Notice?: You get gobs of left overs for Thanksgiving but no one gives leftovers for the Easter Meal (especially if lamb is served).
Peek In Our Classroom:
An odd thing has been happening in my classroom. It is a phenomenon of an increased interest in puzzle maps. It may be that many students are in a sensitive period or they saw an older student (who is in a sensitive period) work with the puzzle map and they followed. In any event I have never seen this kind of interest in puzzle maps but I am lovin it!
The Hundred Board is a fun and educational exercise found in the Montessori classroom to help children with their counting from 1 to 100. This is a material that breaks away from the concrete to the abstract portion of math.
I have science cards in my classroom. They are three part cards (one with just a picture, one with the picture and word, and one with just the word.) This student is working with the amphibian box.
This student is working on the teen board found in the math area. The numbers 11-19 are more of a challenge for a child to learn as their names are more complicated than those of the rest of the number system (11,12,13,15 do not follow the rules like 14,16,17,18,19). The teen board helps to develop an understanding of how these numbers are formed from a ten and units and this teaches the foundations of the decimal system. The child associates between the quantity (concrete) and the numbers (abstract).
Next Week: Line Time- International Festival Preparation
Letter Of The Week- None scheduled due to International Festival Practice
Rhyming Word Of The Week- None scheduled due to International Festival Practice
Next Language will be- None scheduled due to International Festival Practice
Snack will be brought to you by Hunter
Upcoming Events:
International Festival Practice Wednesday, May 1st | Cuyahoga Falls High School, 6pm-7pm
International Festival Friday, May 3rd | Cuyahoga Falls High School, 5:30pm | Early Dismissal 12 Noon
—Moms and Muffins, Friday May 10th, 7am to 7:45am—
—Grandparents Day, Tuesday May 14—
Fun, Frolic, and Friends:
My long hair is catching up with his. He claims I will never catch up with him. We will see.
Cheesy grins and what looks like a student running in the background. He can not wait to work on the sandpaper letters.
You shoulda seen the other guy. Notice the scratch on her nose?
North America: Is the third largest continent in the world. There are four big countries: Canada, Greenland, the United States and Mexico. It has high mountains and flat grasslands. It has swamps, forest, deserts and even volcanoes. Most people speak English, Spanish or French.
South America: Is the fourth largest continent in the world. It has tall mountains and flat grasslands. The worlds largest rain forest is in South American and is called the Amazon rain forest. There are may unusual plants and animals.
Work Time:
Compound Words: These students are learning that when two words are used together they form a new meaning. For example, sun and flower becomes sunflower.Movable Alphabet: This child is practicing blending and forming words using the different letter sounds she has mastered med, sled, dog and pam.South America Map: This child is learning the names of the countries and where they are located on a map.Stamp Game: This child is doing static subtraction problems using the stamp game.Cursive Sand Tray Writing: This child is practicing writing the lowercase cursive z in the sand tray. She is developing multiple skills involving her eyes, arms, hands, memory, posture and body control.
Guest Reader:
Reminders:
April 22 | Easter Monday | No School
April 26 | Bring Your Parent to Work Time
May 1 @ 6:00 pm – 7:30 pm | International Festival Rehearsal | Cuyahoga Falls High School
May 3 | Early Dismissal 12:00pm | No Afterschool care available
May 3 @ 5:30 pm – 9:00 pm | International Festival Show| Cuyahoga Falls High School
Lessons: Conjunctions- a word used to connect clauses or sentences. It acts like a bridge. We focused on and, but, or.
Cultural Subjects: We can now count to ten in 28 different languages (English, Sign Language, Latin, Spanish, German, French, Greek, Japanese, Arabic with the Lebanese Dialect, Italian, Russian, Romanian, Swedish, Tagolog, Hebrew, Korean, Hungarian, Irish, Kiswahili, Welsh, Dutch/Flemmish, Polish, Serbo-Croation, Cebuano, Malay, Hindi, Farsi, Turkish).
Next Week:
Line Time: Prepositions
Sight Words of the Week: None planned due to International Festival practice
Synonym of the Week: None planned due to International Festival practice
Spring is here! We are excited for all the new opportunities Spring brings even if that includes a ton of rain!
Throughout the week, I get to glance in on all of the Enrichments that take place at Absorbent Minds and see the smiling faces of our dancers, the concentration on the our students perfecting a design in Art and the beautiful sounds coming from class with Ms. Lisa.
Below are a few snap shots of what our Enrichements have consisted of over the past several weeks! As you enter the building at drop-off or pick-up, we hope you can take a moment to admire your child’s talent on the bulletin boards that line our entrance hallway!
ART
These students are working diligently on their tessallation projects.
Each child chose their own pattern then carefully recreated it resulting in beautiful ongoing pictures.
Finally, they were able to choose whether or not they wanted to add color to their desigs. Some used water color paints. Others chose to add dimension by drawing patterns withing their shapes. We observed for several weeks how each student took their time to create their perfect tessallation.
Here are a few finished products!
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Having fun with designing their names in chalk!
MUSIC
I had the joy of listening to this student play me her International Festival piano piece. She already has it committed to memory!
Practicing with Ms. Lisa
DANCE
Swimming through their moves to “Baby Shark”!
Last day of dance with Ms. Elisabeth. The dancers love to strike a pose : )
“If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.” – African Proverb
I feel like I am always writing about “one of my favorite things about Montessori,” but there is so much I love about it. Here’s another thing I love: collaboration. I am so glad to teach a philosophy that encourages students to find others to bounce ideas off of or to feel confident enough to ask about things they don’t know because they see others (even teachers!) are still learning and asking questions. Through collaboration and teaching peers, students strengthen their own skills and learn how to communicate effectively to be heard and be successful. Learning these skills at such a young age will lead to great success in interpersonal relationships as adults and great success in their chosen fields.
These fifth and second year students are working on finding the area of a circle. They took a circle that was broken into ten equal parts and attempted to turn it into a rectangle since they know the formula for finding the area of a rectangle. Once the rectangle was formed we found how many radii fit across the rectangle. It happened to be a little over three, like pi! We determined to use the formula for the area of a rectangle (base x height), we would have to multiply the radius squared times pi! They worked right away on their follow-up work to find the area of five circles!This group was responsible for researching the religion of Great Zimbabwe. Through their research, they found that the Great Zimbabwe people worshipped a god named Mwari. To worship this god, they would visit a temple they built from stone, without mortar. This group is working to build a model of that temple!These students are working to recreate a model of the water cycle. The fourth grade students learned about the water cycle, the nitrogen cycle, and the carbon cycle. This third grader was interested in what they were doing and asked to learn about it. He joined in to complete this follow-up work together. It was great to hear them bounce items off of each other!This first year student is guiding her peers through finding the parts of speech in the sentence she wrote. She is giving each student a word from the sentence and helping them talk through which part of speech it is. Once they agree on an answer, she places the correct symbol for that part of speech above the word in the sentence! This helps aid students in their own writing and sentence formation.
“A Peek at Next Week”
Next week our first year students will continue working on their Great Zimbabwe research, will discuss the function of the leaf vein, and will conduct leaf experiments. Our second year students will practice using commas in an address, will find the sum of the interior angles of a triangle, and will begin creating an imaginary island. Our third year students will review the interjection, will continue studying Pythagorean Theorem, and will finish studying the human body. Our fourth year students will continue studying Cro-Magnon Homo sapiens, will complete their fungi study guide, and will complete labs about solubility and acids. Our fifth year students will study phrases, will continue researching ancient civilizations, will look at the animal tree of life, and will study coastal plains.
REMINDERS:
We need a few more parent volunteers for our final typing lessons (on Fridays). Sign up here.
NO SCHOOL – Monday, April 22 – Easter Monday
Wednesday, May 1 – International Festival Practice
Friday, May 3 – Early Dismissal – Noon – No after-care
Yay! We are officially starting the international festival practice and festivities! Last week we had fun focusing on Denmark,Austria,France,and The Netherlands.We had fun reading amazing books, learning how to say hello, goodbye, please, and thank you in the different languages.We also have been practining our songs and lines!!This week we had fun exploring Sweden, Belgium,Ukraine, Hungary, and Russia!! WE had fun learning about each countries flag,the different traditions they celebrate, and the different foods that they eat! It has been such a fun couple of weeks!
Our friend is working on the Geometric Solids. The Geometric Solids are a key part of the sensorial curriculum area, allowing the children to understand 3D shapes by making them tangible objects.When working on the Red Rods the child will develop visual and muscular perception of length.our friend is working on one of our pattern works. Patterns help us make predictions based on our obsverations; this is an impotant skill in math. Understanding patterns help prepare children for learning complex number concepts and mathematical operations.One of our KIndergarten students is working on her journal. Journal writing with young children serve five major purposes: 1) it teaches children that their thoughts, feelings, and words can be transferred from their minds onto paper for others to see and read.2) children learn to value writing, and to respect the writing of others. 3) Journal writing gives children REAL and RELEVANT opportunities to learn conventions of print. 4) children need to experiment with letters, letter sounds, and inventive spelling in a nin-threatening way. 5) Writing gives children time to practice the fine motor control that will help them become better writiers!When working on Blue Rhyming the child is learning the necessary vowel sounds and consonant blends. our little cutie is working on our Land, Water, and Air cards. This is such a fun and hands on Geography lesson that helps the child understand the concept of Land, water, and air.
REMINDERS:
Tomorrow is book share!
Next Friday is our field trip! If you have not turned in your form, then please do ASAP!!!
Line Time: This week we got a big jump on learning our song for the International Festival and learning our lines for the show.
Cultural Subjects:
Your children can now count to ten in 25 languages (English, Latin, Sign Language, Spanish, German, French, Japanese, Greek, Arabic with the Lebanese Dialect, Italian, Russian, Romanian, Swedish, Tagolog, Hebrew, Korean, Hungarian, Irish, Kiswahili, Welsh, Dutch/Flemmish, Polish, Serbo-Croation, Cebuano, and Malay).
Trivia Question: In high school my football jersey was number 86. Why did I chose this number? This is a tough one!
Hint: My biggest life influences were music, television, and movies.
For those of you who are interested I played wide receiver/flanker and defensive backs position for the Amherst Fighting Comets.
Guest Reader:
Pastor Kirk reads “We Don’t Eat Our Classmates” A story about how others feel.
Peek In Our Classroom:
The Vowel Tree is a tactile, engaging way to teach and practice decoding words. This manipulative can be used with beginning readers to more advanced readers. Originally developed as a Montessori material, the vowel tree reinforces skills for all learners; tactile learners, auditory learners, and visual learners. To use the Vowel Tree: Have the child take two consonants from small pieces of paper . Place one consonant in front of the letter “a” and one after. Have the child say the word that is formed, combining the first two letters into one blended sound. Then have them slide the letters down to the next vowel and say the word. Continue all the way down the tree. For the purposes of this work, they can say a word even if it’s a “nonsense” word, just for the practice of saying the vowel sounds.
This is a sorting material found in the Sensorial are. There are nine compartments and nine colors (each color has a different shades). Each color gets its own compartment.
The Montessori Pink Series is a set of language cards that represent a CVC/ word and have a matching index card. The Pink Rhyming material uses three letter/short vowel sounds.
This child is working on the United States Puzzle Map. What she has done is trace the individual state/piece and is coloring and identifying the state.
Next Week: Line Time- International Festival Preparation
Letter Of The Week- None scheduled due to International Festival Practice
Rhyming Word Of The Week- None scheduled due to International Festival Practice
Next Language will be- None scheduled due to International Festival Practice
Snack will be brought to you by Dorothy
Upcoming Events:
(((((((((( Easter Monday NO SCHOOL Monday 4/22/2019 ))))))))))
International Festival Practice, Wednesday, May 1st | Cuyahoga Falls High School, 6pm-7pm
International Festival, Friday, May 3rd | Cuyahoga Falls High School, 5:30pm | Early Dismissal 12 Noon
—Moms and Muffins, Friday May 10th, 7am to 7:45am—
Fun, Frolic, and Friends:
It was time to clean and she was angry she had to stop her work.
Are they real or fake specs?
A great pose by these two and a sneaky photo bomb by one.
Lessons: Adverbs- We learned that an adverb describes verbs, adjectives, and other adverbs.
The Kindergarten Students showing their favorite symbol by way of kissy lips and a monocle.
Cultural Subjects: We can now count to ten in 28 different languages (English, Sign Language, Latin, Spanish, German, French, Greek, Japanese, Arabic with the Lebanese Dialect, Italian, Russian, Romanian, Swedish, Tagolog, Hebrew, Korean, Hungarian, Irish, Kiswahili, Welsh, Dutch/Flemmish, Polish, Serbo-Croation, Cebuano, Malay, Hindi, Farsi, Turkish).
Next Week:
Line Time: Conjunctions
Sight Words of the Week: None planned due to International Festival practice
Synonym of the Week: None planned due to International Festival practice
